BAY HEAD — A preliminary budget for the next school year, which includes a rise in taxes, was introduced during the school board’s meeting on Tuesday, March 14.
The plan calls for a two percent increase, resulting in an additional $89 in school tax bills for the average assessed home in Bay Head of $1.7 million. This is an addition of $190K in the school’s budget compared to last year.
During the workshop part of the meeting, many reasons were discussed as to why the tax rate had increased this year but according to information presented by Business Administrator Christina Galvao, the main reason the increase in tax rate was not much higher was due to the increase in ratables. Since last year, these ratables have gone up $17M.
Other factors that have an effect on this tentative budget include the rise in health benefit costs, tuition revenue decrease of $6,000, with the number of paid tuition students dropping from 79 to 76, as well as an increase for teacher salaries.
“We are budgeting for part time to go full time,” said Ms. Galvao. “Our salary cost is going up because staff members salaries, over the last few years, have been partially funded by the American Rescue Fund grant. Those funds are now going to be ending so we have to put them in the general budget for next year.”
The budget also includes capital projects that will take place including MacBook replacements for a cost of $52,334, water line replacements for $40,000 and HVAC replacements in the lower level classroom for $150,000.
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
Check out our other Bay Head stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Ocean Star, get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.
